Tales and fleeting memories of my liver journey unabashed

My Pseudo AMA…(ask me anything #reddit)

So these are the top 10 recent questions that have been messaged to me….and subsequent answers. My very own brief AMA (ask me anything re: Reddit)

How did you sleep with all the tubes in you?

Very very uncomfortably, with about 6 pillows around me and with my head cocked to the left. When I got most of my tubes out I had to relearn/retrain my muscles to hold my head upright because it just kind of leaned to the left constantly.

Was it hard learning to walk again?

Pretty hard. My legs remembered how to move moreless, but I had no muscles to go with the movement. I went from using a walker with help during PT in the hospital, to a half walker/half wheel chair at home until around March. I still haven’t figured out how to run yet though lol. But to me that’s a good thing J

What was it like when you could talk again or how does that work with a trach?

So they give you a speech valve you can put over your trach. It lets you talk quietly but it’s really hard to breathe with one on so I tended to not use it until they had decreased the size of my trach. By then they showed me that I can just stick my finger over the hole and talk just the same as with the speech valve.

What did you do on medical leave?

Slept a lot and binge watched tv shows! But about a month before I was to start work again I started getting pretty stir-crazy and bored.

Do you get to know who your donor was?

Yes, on the one year anniversary of my transplant.

Do IVs hurt?

They do at first, but you get used to them. Now I don’t even flinch or stop talking to someone when they put them in.

Did you have a stuffed animal with you?

Yes, I was brought a stuffed Kermit the frog randomly and I slept with that. When the nurses would change my sheets they got to where they tucked Kermit back into my bad for me.

Did they celebrate holidays while you were there?

Yes actually. The day I got into ICU at Methodist it was Halloween so all the nurses were in costumes. On thanksgiving they had a special thanksgiving meal for everyone. On Christmas they also had a special meal and volunteers came around and gave everyone on the ward stockings with gifts in them.

What did you watch on tv?

Oddly enough, the weather channel or the ambient noise channel where they have waves crashing and forest sounds rotating.

You find humor in what happened to you, what was one of the funniest times you had that you haven’t written about yet?

When I was finally able to take a shower I was able to stand on my own for a bit if I was holding on to things. So I showered and when I was done I was reaching for my hair rubber band on the sink and because I was so shaky I dropped it on the floor. I bent down to grab it out of a basic reaction and then realized I could not get up because I had no muscles. So I was stuck on the floor and I couldn’t get up for a bit. I eventually figured out a way to pull myself up with my arms and made my way back to the safety of my bed lol.